Ask A Muslim

Rights Of Muslim Women

Women in Islam are thought to be subjugated, degraded, oppressed - but are they really? Are millions of Muslims simply that oppressive or are these misconceptions fabricated by a biased media?

"And for women are rights over men, similar to those of men over women."Qur'an 2:228

Over fourteen hundred years ago, Islam gave women rights that women in the West have only recently began to enjoy. In the 1930's, Annie Besant observed, "It is only in the last twenty years that Christian England has recognised the right of woman to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times. It is a slander to say that Islam preaches that women have no souls." (The Life and Teachings of Mohammed, 1932).

Men and women all descended from a single person - the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him). Islam does not accept for either of them anything but justice and kind treatment.

Women's equal rights in Islam begin immediately in the Quran's Creation Story. I want to note here that Islam's holy book, the Quran, has many similar stories to those found in the Torah and the Bible. Muslims believe in many of the same prophets who are mentioned in the Jewish Scripture as well as the New Testament: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mary, etc.

Islam is similar to Christianity in the belief in Jesus as the Messiah who had a miraculous birth and who will return at the end of time. Muslims also hold dearly the belief in the Gospel.In fact, Islam considers itself to be a universal religion that is the third dimension of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheistic tradition founded by Abraham. Islam, similar to Judaism, is an uncompromising monotheism that incorporates a Divine Law that was given to Moses. In Judaism it is called the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture) and in Islam it is called the Shariah, laws developed from the revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad.

Despite these similarities, there are some distinct differences. One of those differences is in the Creation Story. In Islam, the idea of "original sin" doesn't exist. Adam and Eveboth are responsible for eating from the forbidden fruit, for not remembering God's words to them. The Quranic story is very clear about their joint responsibility. And when they repent, God forgives them for what in some traditions is called "original sin."

The Quran goes on to praise women like the Virgin Mary and the wife of Pharaoh who prayed to be saved from Pharaoh's tyranny. The Queen of Sheba is mentioned in her political role as a leader of her country. There are multiple mentions of women as mothers, daughters and wives, and, particularly, of women as individuals who have the right to education, the right to keep whatever she earns for herself and the right to the Hereafter.

As a universal religion, Islam has divinely revealed responses to regulate all aspects of human behavior.

The Qur'an has much to say both ABOUT women, and TO women. One Surah is called 'Women', another is named after Maryam the mother of Jesus (pbuh). Women appear in many other parts. In stories of the prophets we have

- Hawwa (Eve) the wife of Adam, no longer the temptress who leads Adam to sin but a partner jointly responsible with him and jointly forgiven by Allah soon afterwards.

- There is the wife of Nuh (Noah) (pbuh) who betrays her husband and is held up along with the wife of Lot as an example of a disbeliever (66:10-11).

- There is the wife of Ibrahim, who laughs at the news the angel brings, of the baby she is to have in her old age;

- the wife of Pharaoh, who saves the infant Musa (Moses) (pbuh) and, along with Maryam, mother of Jesus, is one of the two female examples of the good believer held up in Surah 66:10 & 11.

- The wife of Aziz, who tried to seduce Yusuf (Joseph), is nevertheless treated with some sympathy, when she shows her friends how handsome he is and they all cut themselves with their knives because they are distracted by his beauty;